


The Bet

by kitsunequeen



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Happy Ending, I promise Brett's not as bad as it seems, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 13:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2509835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsunequeen/pseuds/kitsunequeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam’s head snaps up when he hears his name being spoken across the field, but he forces himself to focus back on tying his cleat. It’s not right to eavesdrop on the other team’s plays. Except…</p><p> “Dude, when are you gonna break it off with him?” the same voice makes its way to his ears, and apparently no, they’re not talking about lacrosse at all. </p><p>OR</p><p>The one where Liam finds out he and Brett are dating on a bet. Heartbreak and anger ensue, but everything is not what it seems...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Based on liamsdunbar's tumblr post "I want a fic where Brett asks Liam out because of a bet and when Liam finds out he breaks up with Brett and Brett realizes he really likes him and tries to win him back". Can also be read on tumblr (ghostargents).

Liam’s head snaps up when he hears his name being spoken across the field, but he forces himself to focus back on tying his cleat. It’s not right to eavesdrop on the other team’s plays. Except…

 “Dude, when are you gonna break it off with him?” the same voice makes its way to his ears, and apparently no, they’re not talking about plays at all. He listens harder, making sure to keep his eyes averted.  

“Who says I’m breaking it off?” comes Brett’s voice.

Oh, good. Just some of his friends messing around. That’s fine, that’s-

 “We’re not paying you any extra the longer you keep it up.”  

_What?_

A hard lump starts forming in Liam’s throat.

 “Yeah man,” another voice chimes in. “Fifty bucks is enough. You proved you could get any guy, but going on longer than a week might be verging on cruel.” 

There’s laughter then, loud and haunting, the only thing Liam can hear. No. No, he has to be misunderstanding them. There’s no way Brett’s dating him for money.

 “I mean you could keep it up till the finals, if you want. Distract him a little. We’d be sure to win that way.”

 “Maybe we could up it to seventy-five, if you did that.” 

The raucous laughter is back, ringing in Liam’s ears as he jumps from the bench, storming across the field.  Devenford’s team stares in alarm as he approaches, stopping short right in front of Brett.

 “Liam-” Brett tries, but Liam’s having none of it.  

“You’re dating me on a bet?” he seethes.  

“It’s not-”  

“What? It’s not what it looks like? It LOOKS like-” he shoves Brett backwards, and if he puts some werewolf strength into it, it’s hard to blame him, “your stupid friends-” and again, “-dared you or bet you or _whatever_ to ask me out. Is that all it is to you? A bet?” he rages, shoving Brett so hard this time that he sprawls backwards, landing on the ground. “You _asshole_ ,” he growls in a very inhuman way, and suddenly there are hands on him, dragging him away.

 “Liam!"

 “Dude what’re you doing!?” 

“Let’s go.”

 “Come on buddy, back inside, c’mon.”

 He barely registers Scott and Stiles, their voices tripping over each other as they pull him into the school.  He squeezes his eyes shut as they go, half because he’s afraid they’re yellow at this point, half to stop the hot tears pouring down his cheeks. The last thing he sees is the pained look on Brett’s face.

Good.

 

* * *

 

Cold water pours over his body as Scott and Stiles hold him under the locker room showers. His progress had backtracked to his first week of lycanthropy in a matter of minutes. He feels himself lunging at them, fangs bared, and tries reigning in his wolf. He knows what to do, but he doesn’t want to, can’t bring himself to say the words.  

Scott already is, repeating them over and over, trying to get Liam to join him. “C’mon, Liam. The sun, the moon, the truth. The sun, the moon, the truth.”  Having to use Brett’s mantra kills him now, but _alpha beta omega_ never seemed to work for him. When his claws nearly catch Stiles’ shoulder, he gives in.

“The- the sun, the moon-" He takes deep, gasping breaths, ignoring the water filling his mouth. “The sun, the moon, the truth. The sun," he feels his claws retract, and his anger quells a little, "the moon, the truth.”

After a few more repetitions he’s shifted back, and slides down the wall to the floor, content to wallow there in his misery forever. Unfortunately, Scott’s not quite ready to let him do that. Stupid true alpha.  

He switches the water off and slides down next to Liam, apparently not caring how wet his clothes get.  

“I heard what they were saying,” he says softly. “I’m sorry.”  Stiles opens his mouth to ask, but Scott shoots him an _I’ll-fill-you-in-when-I’m-not-trying-to-deal-with-my-crying-beta_ look, and it silences him.  Scott puts a consoling hand on his knee, giving it a shake. “C’mon Liam, he’s just a jerk. There’s a million better guys out there.”  When he still doesn’t answer, Scott stands, pulling Liam to his feet along with him. “Let’s get you home, you must be freezing.” 

“Yeah, and if Coach finds his two star players hanging around the locker room when the game’s starting, he’ll have a cow,” Stiles pipes up, trying to lighten the mood.

 It doesn’t work.

 

* * *

 

Hours later, after insisting and insisting that Scott should go home, Liam finally lays alone in his bed. He’d long since changed into warm clothes, but there's an inner chill that won't leave him. He hates Brett. _Hates_ him. How could he do this? He’d been Liam’s first boyfriend, his first _kiss,_ he thinks with disgust. After months of his life being like shit, from getting expelled to being bitten to having his name worth $18 million on a hitlist, something had finally gone right. Not only was he dating Brett Talbot, the guy he’d had a crush on since forever, but Brett had been the one to ask _him_ out. And, well… you’re not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.  

A noise at his window interrupts his self pity.

“Scott, I told you to go home!”

 The person who jumps into the window definitely isn’t Scott.  

“Get. The hell. Out.” Liam grits.  

Brett puts up his hands placatingly. “I just want to talk.” 

“Well I don’t. So leave.” 

“Look, it’s not what you think, okay?”

 “So you didn’t ask me out over a bet? Because you could ‘get any guy’?” Liam spits.

 “Okay, technically I did, but you have to let me explain.” 

“I don’t want your explanation. I want you out of my house.”  

This is going even worse than Brett had thought. “Look I- I brought you these,” he says lamely, pulling a slightly crushed bouquet of flowers from his jacket. It’d seemed like a better idea in theory.

 Liam scoffs, not bothering to even dignify the gesture with a response.

 “Well fine,” Brett says, dropping the flowers at the foot of the bed. “I’ll see you around.”

With that, he leaps back out the window, too quickly for Liam to see the tears pooling in his eyes. Werewolves aren’t supposed to cry.  

Liam stares at the yellow flowers for a second before reaching out for them. He thinks of old movies, people plucking the petals away; _he loves me, he loves me not._ Liam already knows the answer. He shoves the flowers in the trash and climbs back in bed.

Wolfsbane would be less toxic.

 

* * *

 

The next day isn’t much better.

Liam has a pounding headache and he just wants to make it through school and crawl back into bed. Of course that can’t happen.  

“DUNBAR!” 

He takes a deep breath, wills himself not to snap.

“Yes, Coach?"

 “What the hell was that last night?! You can’t just go roughing up the other team and then _disappear_. Do you know what kind of explaining I had to do to get us out of that one? You’re lucky that kid claimed it was his fault.”

Brett had taken the blame?

Coach couldn’t care less about Liam’s new interest in the matter, though, just plows on with his speech. 

“And we lost! 7-0. You know the last time I lost 7-0, Dunbar?” He jabs a finger into Liam’s chest. “Not only did you leave, but you took my captain with you! And don’t think he’s getting out of this, either. You’re both doing suicide laps after school. Till. You. Die.” He takes a breath, maybe to finally stop, but tacks on, “Oh, and you took Stilinski, too! Really? I had to put in _Greenberg_. Greenberg!” With that, he throws his hands in the air and stomps back to his office.

As it turns out, werewolf endurance helps with the whole suicide laps thing, and having his alpha by his side helps, too.  Thing is, Scott wants to talk. About Brett. Which is pretty much the last thing Liam wants to talk about.  After plenty of “it really could be a misunderstanding”s and “but he’s still a jerk”s and “but maybe you should give him a chance”s from a very indecisive Scott, Liam finally makes it back to the locker room.

When he opens his locker, a note falls out. He considers leaving it on the ground when he sees the handwriting, but curiosity gets the better of him.

 _I’m sorry Liam,_ it reads. _It was a bet, but I have a good reason. Meet me at the preserve tonight so I can explain? -Brett_

Liam considers it for a second, he really does. But no.

He loudly crumples it into a ball and drops it, grinding it under his heel for good measure, knowing Brett must be waiting somewhere nearby.

Brett’s insides feel pretty similar to the piece of paper.

 

* * *

 

As Liam sits in bed with his math homework that night, he gets a second visitor, this one even less expected. Apparently his room is an open invitation sort of place now. At least Lydia uses the door.  

It’s not like he even knows her well, not really. With everything that’s been going on lately, there hasn’t been much time for pack bonding. But she's one of Scott’s best friends, Liam knows, and had been Allison’s too, so he doesn’t question it when she lets herself in and sits down in his desk chair, clasping her perfectly manicured nails over her crossed legs.

 “I’m sorry about Brett,” she says, getting right to the point.

Stiles had mentioned her being a very direct person, one of the things he loves about her.  

“It’s fine,” he says, trying to keep his tone even. Something about her makes lying seem like a bad plan, even if she isn;t a wolf.  

“It’s not really fine. He’s a jerk.” 

Liam shrugs, and hates the part of himself that wants to defend him. Brett _is_ a jerk.  

“All teenage boys are, though,” she continues, almost conversationally.

 “I’m a teenage boy,” Liam points out, frowning.

 It seems that’s just the response she was looking for. She gives him a thin smile and says, “I know. I heard you just went over there and shoved him. Heard he offered an apology, too. I can’t say I’d take it either, if I were you, but sometimes circumstances can be everything.” With that, she stands back up. She smooths out her perfectly straight dress, flicks a lock of red--strawberry blonde, actually. That’s one of the few things he _had_ been told about Lydia--hair over her shoulder, and smiles before heading from the room.

She leaves Liam’s head spinning, and he thinks maybe that was the point. Maybe it’s time to hear what Brett has to say.

That’s how Liam finds himself standing in front of the Beacon Hills Preserve sign half an hour later. He knew Brett would show, because Brett probably knew he would show. And they were both right.

 “Hey,” a voice says from behind Liam, making him turn.  

“Hey.”

For a while, the silence is deafening.  

Finally Brett says, “So if you would just let me explain everything, just- just please Liam, you have to let me explain."

Liam wouldn’t quite call it begging, but…

“Fine. Go ahead.”

He isn’t going to let him off the hook easily just because he sounds upset.  

“So I did ask you out on a bet, but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.” 

Liam only raises an eyebrow, waiting for him to go on.  

“It’s just… we were in the locker room last week, right? And we were all joking around, and I said something about being able to get any guy I wanted. It was just a joke, but suddenly people were throwing names out, listing people I could and couldn’t. I wasn’t gonna actually ask any of them out, I wouldn’t do that, but then they said your name.” 

“And what? You figured we were friends so it’d be okay to crush me for fifty bucks?”

Liam’s tone is calm, too calm, and it’s hard to tell if what’s buried under it is anger or sadness or disappointment or indifference, but all of them hurt.  

“It wasn’t like that-”  

“Well what was it like?” Liam demands. “It wasn’t like this and it wasn’t like that, but it was like something and I’ve yet to hear what it is.”  

“It’s like- it’s like I’ve had a crush on you for a long time.”

The stoic look that remains on Liam’s face hurts too, but Brett can’t exactly blame him. He thinks he sees the tiniest flicker in his eyes, but it’s probably nothing. The words likely don’t mean a whole lot at this point.

“And I mean I’m not exactly supposed to ask out the star player of the opposing lacrosse team, right? But suddenly these guys are challenging me to, literally offering money- and god Liam, the money doesn’t matter, I never even took it anyway, but it was a good excuse- to ask you out. We were only supposed to last a week, but I thought maybe if I did it this way and convinced them that that’s what made me actually like you, they could take it. I mean that would make it their own faults. I didn’t even realize I liked you as much as I did before we started dating, because yeah, that was way more than a crush. But you heard them talking literally right before I was gonna tell them I wanted to actually go out with you and I didn’t even get a chance to explain and I-”  He doesn’t get to continue rambling because suddenly Liam’s grabbing his shirt collar and he thinks he’s probably about to be punched, probably deserves to be punched and then- _oh_.

Liam’s mouth finds his and he walks them backwards into a tree, Brett still leaning down to return the kiss.

 “I’m so sorry,” Brett murmurs against his mouth when they pull away for a second.

 “Me too,” Liam breathes back.

 “I’m such an idiot.” 

“Don’t say that about my boyfriend,” Liam practically growls, and pulls him back before he can say anything.  

That’s okay. Words would ruin the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos are always appreciated<3


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